Importer fined $6,000 after not honouring settlement, and importing 3,600 unsafe babies' rattles
Published03 Dec 1999
The Otahuhu District Court today fined importer Geeta Trading Company Limited $6,000 plus $390 costs for importing 3,600 babies rattles that broke easily and were a choking and inhalation hazard.
The Commerce Commission prosecuted Geeta for breaching the Fair Trading Act, which makes the product safety standard for toys mandatory. Geeta pleaded guilty.
Geeta supplies the 13 "King Kong" stores in the North Island.
Commission Chairman John Belgrave said that Commission staff making a follow-up check found that Geeta was not honouring a Commission settlement. The settlement related to animal toys that the Commission had alleged did not meet the standard.
This is the second prosecution in four weeks of a firm that did not comply with a Commission settlement. Last month Greenbark Enterprises Limited, which trades as Mothercare New Zealand, was fined $4,000 for selling children's clothes that did not meet the fire safety and care labelling standards.
"Businesses should look on settlements as advice about how to comply with the law, and should take that advice" Mr Belgrave said. "We follow-up all our settlements. If one is not honoured, then we will consider court action."
In this case, Geeta imported multi-coloured babies' rattles shaped like bells, lemon trees and birds, and labelled them as unsuitable for children under three years.
Mr Belgrave said that importers and retailers must understand that simply labelling toys as not for children under three does not make toys comply with the standard.
"This is a safety standard not a labelling standard," he said. "It applies to toys for young children, irrespective of how the toys are labelled."
The Commission had the rattles checked by a child psychologist and an accredited testing laboratory. They concluded that the rattles were intended for children under three, and that they broke easily, releasing pieces too small to meet the standard.
The standard prohibits toys, and parts of toys that can be removed or break off, that fit completely into a measuring cylinder about the size of a 35mm film canister.
The standard applies to toys for children aged up to three years old because up to that age children do not have a properly developed coughing reflex when they choke. If they swallow or inhale an object that sticks in their throat, they must be helped or they can choke to death.
Media contact: Acting Fair Trading Manager Ross McPherson
